Name Date: (Source The Stick and Stone Age by Tacqui Bailey and Matthew Lilly) “‘ocabulary \. cimivorous Mammals Primates Opposable So what's so special about apes? VApesare human's closest In the space below fill out the Venn diagram for poddles and wolves Read on and fill out the chart. ‘What are the similarities between apes and humans? ‘What are the differences between apes and humans?Well, | guess if you're an owl or an ant, apes aren't very special at all. But apes are special to humans because they'te our closest living relatives! ! DONT CARE WHAT YOU SAY. NO SELP- RESPECTING DOG WOULD BE SEEN DEAD Scientists like to organize plant or animal IN THAT OUTFIT! species into “family” groups. The species in each group are all si and 60 they are related. To us, a wolf and a poodle may seem quite different. But to a scientist, they both belong to the group of carnivorous mammals known as “dogs.” Apes are the animals that are most similar to us, 80 scientists put them into the same family group as humans. Why are they similar to us? Well .. i es SO. WHEN q DID YOU START LOSING YOUR First of all, apes and humans are both mammals, We're warm-blooded. We : feed our young with milk i e from our own bodies. And we're covered in hair (even though human hair is sometimes hard to see). JO tHe stick ano stone aceSecond, we're not just mammale — We're primate mammals. This means that we have really flexible fingers and thumbs that let us grip and hold and ‘turn things,* And third, apes and humans are both different to other primate mammals in special ways, We have no tail. We can move our arms around in almost every direction (a skill apes developed by using their arms to hang from tree branches), and our molars (chewing teeth) have a Y-shaped pattern on the surface. Today, there are just five kinds of apes in the world — f gibbons and orangutans in Asia, and gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees in Africa. And there's only one kind of human. But once upon a time there were others — as we Shall see, THE STICK AND STORE AGE W